I was only a little kid (7.5 years — I checked) when I first discovered Jim Steranko in Strange Tales #159. (In fairness, I might have discovered him an issue or two sooner, but it’s Captain America’s appearance on the cover that stands out in my mind’s eye.)
This is right around the time that Jim became STERANKO — no first name or other reference required. In subsequent issues of Strange Tales, and then his short-lived legendary run on the solo Nick Fury series, I most definitely didn’t always understand what he was doing, but I knew it was dynamic, wild and special. Looking back at the material today, it remains so.
Jim holds on to most of his published artwork, so a cool specialty piece like this one is a rare opportunity to have something of Jim’s in a collection. And when — and if — that published art ever comes on the market, there is so little of it, and it will be in such high demand, that affordability is going to be a challenge.
A big one.
Those covers… About 15 – 20 years ago, I discovered that the published cover to Strange Tales #159 was actually a revision to Jim’s original by John Romita, and possibly Marie Severin as well.
Enter SHIELD, 55 years ago. Nick Fury had already joined the Marvel Universe as WW 2 commando Sgt. Fury in 1963. And he showed up later that year in Fantastic Four, 20 years in the future (present day) as a CIA officer. But now he was ColonelFury, head of the super secret spy agency SHIELD. (Originally, Supreme Headquarters, International Espionage and Law-Enforcement Division.)
In 12 short pages, we are not only introduced to SHIELD, but the villainous Hydra (Not an acronym, one of the few) and of course those great gadgets like the crazy heli-carrier. Comics, as noted previously, do not have budget constraints. Artists can go wild, and as we know when it came to wild tech, Kirby always delivered. All the bells and whistles of the Bond films, plus much, much more.
As a very young reader, I appreciated that Fury was a unique character; living in two different eras, in Sgt. Fury and in Shield. And that he interacted with Captain America and Reed Richards (Mr. Fantastic) in both of those eras.
SHIELD was another great Lee and Kirby creation, but the series became something extraordinary when Jim Steranko took over, first pencilling over Jack’s layouts, and eventually writing, pencilling, inking and even coloring some those epic SHIELD stories himself. (More on that in the next post.)
Dave Bullock’s modern cover is a pseudo-homage to one of Steranko’s great Shield covers, SHIELD # 4, with the uniform almost identical, minus the dagger on the boots. The background references the groundbreaking pop psychedelic look that Steranko himself was creating at the time.
If Marvel ever decided to create a SHIELD animated series, I’d want it to look exactly like this.
Nick Fury started as a WW2 commando and evolved into director of SHIELD. Marvel ultimately retconned a war injury to fully explain the eyepatch.
Fury weaved into the bigger Marvel universe, past and “present”(60s) with Captain America, Tony Stark, Reed Richards and others.
The frustrated artist, working “Marvel style” on Daredevil — plotting AND drawing — but only paid for the art, heard about a new opportunity. Tower, primarily a book publisher, had decided to take a leap of faith into the comics biz, and Woody was ready to help them.
It was the perfect role for Woody, who had carte blanche to
develop the comics as hew saw fit. He was artist, storyteller, art director and
defacto editor — all rolled into one.
And with the help of friends/colleagues Len Brown (Topps
Mars Attacks) and Dan Adkins, T.H.U.N.D.E.R. Agents was born.
Combining a super powered team (think Justice League) with a
secret spy organization (ala S.H.I.E.L.D., which had just launched a few months
prior) T.H.U.N.D.E.R. Agents was an effort to capitalize on the secret agent pop
culture craze. (James Bond, Man from U.N.C.LE., et al.).
This page is a great example Wood’s crystal clear storytelling
and trademark inks. Adkins is credited in
some instances on this story as the penciller, with Wood on inks, and due to
the collaborative nature of the creative teams on these stories, it’s often
easy to lose the thread of who did what.
But this looks like pure Wood here, as Dynamo and his
“duplicate” (there are actually three Dynamos in this story — don’t ask) are
mowed down in a hail of bullets.
I’ve I always wanted to use that phrase.
Who are you going to call?:
T.H.U.N.D.E.R. The Higher United Nations Defense Enforcement Reserves.
U.N.C.LE. United Network Command for Law and Enforcement.
S.H.I.E.L.D: Originally Supreme Headquarters,
International Espionage and Law-Enforcement Division and
later Strategic Hazard Intervention Espionage Logistics Directorate. In the
MCU film and TV Universe, it means Strategic Homeland Intervention, Enforcement
and Logistics Division.
By 1965, the super-spy craze (and acronym obsession) was in full bore in pop culture.
By the time of T.H.U.N.D.E.R. Agents launch, Wood had created two bonafide superhero masterpieces. The Superman parody in Mad Comics and the Daredevil and Sub-Mariner crossover in DD#7 are still considered classics today.
